Full Sail Brewing officially began its new era in packaging last month, taking the leap so many are these days into canning. The brewery had a top-of-the-line Krones Craftmate can filler installed and hasn’t looked back.
“The market has moved in the direction of cans,” said Collin Godkin, Full Sail’s director of brewery operations. “We’ve wanted to get into cans for some time, but 10 years ago there just wasn’t a craft version of the high-quality can fillers the big breweries were using. The advent of that was key for us.”
Filling at the rate of 250 cans per minute, the Full Sail brewery’s canning line can handle its own Session and Full Sail brands, as well as take on contract brewing from other breweries looking to outsource their canning to keep up with this market trend.
“It’s an exciting time to be at Full Sail, navigating new water, breaking the mold and figuring out new territory,” said Godkin about the new canning line, contract canning and upcoming innovations. The 21-year Full Sail veteran is the newly appointed director of brewery operations. Overseeing maintenance and plant operations, along with the new canning system, Godkin has grown with Full Sail and grown his own family in Hood River, just a few blocks from the brewery. His favorite beer in a can? The award-winning Session Premium Lager, a perfect way to toast to Full Sail, Session and the new Krones canning line.
